Islamic State has not had a good month, suffering substantial setbacks in Iraq and watching with concern as the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assad looks set to retake the major northern city of Aleppo.

Rumors are swirling that Islamic State leader Ibrahim al-Samarra’i (who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) was severely wounded and that some of his chief lieutenants were killed by a U.S. airstrike on a meeting of IS leaders Friday.

The legislature of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (a super-province of Iraq) has voted to send Kurdistan forces to the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane to help it fight off a concerted attack by Islamic State.

Al-Zaman reports that Iranian President Hasan Rowhani has proposed to visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi an anti-IS axis including Syria, Lebanon and Iraq that would be led by Iran, as an alternative to the U.S.-led coalition proposed by President Barack Obama.

Kurdish forces at Kobane (Ayn al-Arab) on Saturday fought off an assault by Islamic State that sought to cut the city off from Turkey and completely surround it, according to an Al-Jazeera reporter on the scene.

The U.S. is preparing to send more military supplies to the Middle East to fight Islamic State at the same time a report has revealed that many of the radical group’s weapons come from America. So how can we be sure the deadly equipment we’re sending won’t end up in the same hands?

The pan-Arab London daily Al-Hayat [Life] reported Sunday that Islamic State is still expanding its sway in towns in Iraq’s western al-Anbar Province, having just taken Kubaisah in the district of Hit on Friday into Saturday, two days after the district capital of Hit fell to them.

Oh right, because Congress pretty much does diddly squat these days. Watch Jon Stewart make a jaw-dropping discovery as to why our elected officials refuse to publicly discuss what the “Daily Show” host calls one of the most “crucial issues of our time.”

The pan-Arab London daily al-Sharq al-Awsat [The Middle East] is reporting from a source inside the new Iraqi government that former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, now one of three largely symbolic vice presidents, is attempting to undermine his successor, Haider al-Abadi.

Sawt al-Iraq (Voice of Iraq) reports that during the past two days, Saudi, UAE and American fighter jets attack small oil refineries originally built for Syria by Turkey, which had been run by IS in Deir Ezzor.

The pan-Arab, London-based daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat (The Middle East) reports that the major Shiite militias of Iraq are denouncing Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi for welcoming U.S. air support in the fight against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In a recent episode of “The Trews” titled “Will Obama’s Bombs Stop Beheadings?” comedian Russell Brand ponders what President Obama really means when he says the U.S. is attacking Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in order to protect “America’s core interests.”